Publish at February 17 2014 Updated November 05 2025
Even if we don't have detailed data on the time spent reading machine-generated texts, the fact is that we spend a lot of time checking our performance, our bank account, our social profiles, the weather, reading alerts of all kinds or routine information, statistics, mileage, clicks, heartbeats, words per minute and so much more.
These machine-written texts sometimes have great value linked to their context, their timing, or simply serve to reassure or worry us. "Your e-mail was not delivered - error 501". Reading them triggers an almost automatic response in the reader.
Whether Thérèse has updated her profile won't change your life, but a reminder of her birthday or an announcement of her new job will interest you a little more and prompt a response. But in any case, the intellectual machine reads them as raw data, scans them quickly for the key information and disposes of them immediately.
There's nothing very reflexive about this way of reading: given the accumulation and frequency of these communications, the speed of processing is important - we'll think about that later, perhaps. What's more, we're usually doing something else, so reading is a distraction from our main activity, unlike reading for interest or pleasure.
The main reason people give for not reading books or magazines is "lack of time". Reading takes time. Time spent reading magazines, newspapers or books is declining in all populations. Constantly distracted by media that are more present and richer than ever, robots and communicating machines, interactive television included, are sending us their McLuhanian "message", to replace our capacity for discernment, to use theirs, the machines', faster, and not to waste our time reading. The number of hours spent in front of screens exceeds 30 hours a week in many circles. "No time" is probably not the right reason.
I recently observed a young hygienist refusing to intervene on a patient without first taking an X-ray; the patient knew and asserted that it was simply a sesame seed stuck under a gum, easily observable with the eyes, and balked at the unnecessary cost of an X-ray. For the hygienist, it was as if his capacity for direct observation was not worth that of the machine, and no longer had any value. That's what it's all about, the lack of experience of "something other" than electronically mediated information.
The most obvious way of dealing with this latent problem seems to be concentration. How distracted are you by robot-generated text? By all those automatic signals? Whatever the answer, it's our capacity for concentration, discernment and analysis that's at stake. What enhances it, what hinders it - it's up to us to find the right balance.
Taking the time and inclination to read a good book from time to time could be a good indicator.
References
Notre cerveau à l'heure des nouvelles lectures - Hubert Guillaud - January 2013 - Internet Actu
http://www.internetactu.net/2013/01/04/notre-cerveau-a-lheure-des-nouvelles-lectures/
What are reading statistics worth? - François Richaudeau
Richaudeau François. What are reading statistics worth? In: Communication et langages. N°11, 1971. pp. 77-94. Accessed February 17, 2014
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/colan_0336-1500_1971_num_11_1_3890
Key figures for the book sector 2011-2012 - March 2013 - Observatoire de l'économie du livre .pdf
http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/content/download/62912/482055/file/Chiffres-cles_Livre_2011-2012.pdf
Les pratiques de lecture des Québécoises et des Québécois de 2004 à 2009 - December 2012
Ministry of Culture and Communications
http://www.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/index.php?id=4085&tx_lesecrits_pi1%5Becrit%5D=688&cHash=f21ab29f4e8ee1948feda751056aebc3
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